saved all the women

31:15 saved all the women. The Midianite women had evidently been willing participants in the seduction of Israel, and God had commanded that they, as well as the Midianite men, be put to death (Numbers 25:17,18). No less than 24,000 Israelites had already been slain by God for this grievous sin (Numbers 25:9). Half that number were now sent to destroy the Midianite men and women; evidently all of these had been either actively participating or passively approving in the attempt to destroy Israel. Their sin was more unconscionable in God’s sight than the sins of the Amorites and Canaanites, who had already been designated for destruction by God because they–being descended from Abraham and having Moses’ own father-in-law as one of their priests (Exodus 3:1)–were a kindred nation to the children of Israel.